


Has Anyone Told You You're Pretty

by Cjcorrigan



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Anesthesia, Dentists, Fluff, M/M, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-10
Updated: 2017-09-10
Packaged: 2018-12-26 00:04:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 831
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12047124
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cjcorrigan/pseuds/Cjcorrigan
Summary: Neil has never been to the dentist, so when he get’s a toothache and needs a root canal, he loses all control over his mouth under the influence of the laughing gas.





	Has Anyone Told You You're Pretty

It started at Sweetie’s. Even though they had long since forgone the cracker dust, every meal at the diner inevitably ended with ice cream.

One exclamatory, “OW! Shit!” from Neil made the table go silent as his spoon clattered to the table.

“Are you okay?” Nicky asked, but Andrew grabbed Neil’s face before he could even respond.

With one quick dig of his thumb at the bottom left side of Neil’s jaw Neil was yanking himself away swearing up a storm.

Andrew pulled Neil’s ice cream away from him and proceeded to eat it. “Dumb-ass has a cavity.”

And so the next Monday, Neil was sitting in a dentist’s chair, sighing every two seconds like it was his job as they waited for the dentist to give them the bad news.

Another sigh. “Stop it,” Andrew said flatly, “Sighing won’t get you to practice sooner.”

“How do you-“

“Junkie.” A warning. “You’ve never been to a dentist before have you?”

Neil rolled his eyes. “It wasn’t exactly high on my list of things to do while running from him.”

“Hello!” Came a booming voice somewhere over Neil’s right shoulder. The dentist was far too cheery from a man who made his living on pain, crow’s feet around his eyes from smiling, and salt and pepper hair. “Well, Mr. Josten, unfortunately, your x-rays turned up a lot more than just one cavity.” The man, popped the x-ray film onto a white screen so they could see. “You have six, and some of them we can fill easy and be done with it, but this one and this one here as well will require root canals.”

“I don’t want anesthesia.” Neil’s response was immediate.

“I’ll watch them,” Andrew offered with a pointed glance at the dentist and the hygienist behind him.

“Well, luckily you won’t need anesthesia. We can use laughing gas instead.”

-

Nearly two hours of constant work, teeth-scraping and drilling later, when the dentist was done and Neil could finally talk again, he was over the moon with the effects of the laughing gas. The doctor said it could take the rest of the afternoon to wear off, as he was scribbling out a prescription for pain medicine. Easy for him to say when he didn’t have to see Neil past the next 5 minutes, while Andrew was settling in for the longest afternoon of his life.

They were driving home when Neil asked, “Andreeeeew, can I hold your hand?”

Andrew weighed the odds that Neil was only asking because he was high as a kite to the odds that Neil was just being poor, touch-starved Neil, and came out with support for the latter, so he took his right hand off the steering wheel and let it rest on the console between them. It would have all been fine is Neil stopped there.

Stumbling through the apartment door was a task and a half, but then as Neil gasped at the sight of the monsters. “Nicky! I missed you, I missed practice,” Neil said as he tangled himself around Nicky’s shoulders in a hug that looked much more complicated than it needed to be. Then came a gasp, “How long have I been gone? Kevin, did I miss the whole practice?!”

Andrew was standing in the kitchenette, contemplating whether or not to go to the roof for a cigarette, when Neil calling his name shook him from his thoughts “Hey, Andrew, has anyone told you you’re pretty?”

Aaron was pretending to gag from his beanbag chair, while Nicky’s head whipped around so quick it looked like it would break to look at Andrew. “250%” Andrew grumbled, flicking Neil in the forehead as he used his other hand to bat at Neil’s legs so that he could sit next to him on the couch.

“Ow, meanie.” Neil pouted. “I just asked because I feel like no one’s told you that, and that makes me really sad. But you are. Pretty. And amazing. And smart.”

He wasn’t wrong. The number of people who had ever complimented him on anything were limited. Looking back through his memories he realized he could count them on one hand. Cass complimented him on his good grades once. Kevin and Wymack both complimented on his skill in exy, and Neil complimented him on everything. Like he was trying to make up for the rest of Andrew’s shitty life. Maybe he was.

-

That night long after the laughing gas had worn off, Neil did exactly what Andrew didn’t want him to do (as usual) and brought it up.

“Y’know about what I said while I was high…” he started. “You know it was true, right? You have to know you’re smart and talented and amazing.”

“And?”

Neil blushed bright red. “And pretty.”

“If I say yes will you stop saying it?”

An odd look crossed Neil’s face before began to smile. “Nope,” he said, popping the ‘p.’

Andrew vowed to smother him that night. Maybe with his mouth.


End file.
